What objects do you remember being scared of in childhood?

[wanderings]

Rationally or otherwise? Some of mine were:

Seeing a toilet with the seat up - it looked like an open-mouthed monster, and I remember it being at my eye level too.

Shoes with buckles, especially when someone else was fastening them on to my feet, because I couldn't get them off myself. Velcro ones were OK though.

Lifts, especially the old-fashioned ones with metal gates instead of sliding doors, now quite rare.

Balloons. Even now they bring me out in a cold sweat, because they might burst.

[EastMidsGPs]

Not a thing but two songs that were played on the radio on Saturday mornings.
We always went to my gran's and she always had the radio on ??? The Light Service ??? Gracious i am old 😂

Little White Bull I think Tommy Steele sang this, the bit in the song where there is a kind of moo scared me witless

Sparky a sort of disembodied early electronic voice in this always upset me.

[LemonysSnicket]

Rollercoasters, but only if they were blue?
Empty lily flower stamen (looked like wounds)
Shepherds pie
Mushrooms in spag Bol (slugs)

[Awwlookatmybabyspider]

Christ on an air balloon those steps are beyond creepy.
Mind you I think under water that's not mean to be there is creepy.

[akitas2]

The Michelin tyres man, people doing robotics wearing masks etc so they look like actual robots, cybermen and daleks, the children's programme 'The Boy From Space", mannequins, clowns.

[Newyoiker]

Green tops on tomatoes (looks like spiders) and the plug in the bath as it made a horrible noise

[WickedLazy]

I was afraid of the noise the toilet made when it flushed I used wash my hands first, so I could flush then run like mad back to my room.

[TheDowagerCuntess]

Lots of people afraid of loos.

If ever I peered into someone's loo and the water was blue (due to those cleaning blocks people put in the cistern), I thought it meant there were sharks swimming around down there. Not a chance in hell that loo was going to see any action from me.

🦈

[HRTpatch]

Typewriters. When the keys are banged down and they get tangled

[mumsiedarlingrevolta]

Like PP's I Hate clowns.
And ventriloquist dummies.

But utter terror having to walk over those doors in the pavement that open up out of pub cellars.
I was petrified of falling through-the rattle was terrifying and I think my darling Poppop teased me and it stuck forever

[bobstersmum]

Revolving doors

[wanderings]

@mumsiedarlingrevolta I expect as a child you didn't know about the Shanghai Tunnels (lots of interconnected pub basements) in Portland, USA, and the practice of "Shanghaiing". Any child who learned about it would have been rightly scared when passing any pub basement! I visited the Shanghai Tunnels recently, and they have a grim history.

Speaking of history, when we learned about WW2, I remember fearing not the loss of life, but something far worse than that: evacuation! The thought of having to leave your home (and maybe return to find it destroyed) was absolutely terrifying.

[schnubbins]

Escalators

Adults in general

The massive religious lifelike paintings my grandmother had hanging on the bedroom wall.One had Jesus with a crown of thorns digging into his scalp withe the blood dripping down and he looking impeachingly for help.Had to always sleep with my face to the wall.

The toilet in winter when it was cold.I was told that rats would come up and bite my bum.

[LightDrizzle]

Our big old upright Hoover. Escalators. The spine of a thick hard-backed book on antiques on our bookshelves, I thought it showed some kind of space monster, but it was an urn on an elaborate stand. Also a painting that was a bit Edvard Munchish.
I also had to be back in my bed by the time the sound of the toilet flushing died away or my family would die.

[AgathaRaisinsCat]

Ladybirds, no idea why but I would run screaming from them, refuse to get into a paddling pool if there was one in it etc. Not scared of them anymore but I still react to spiders in the same way.

The toilet monster. We only had a downstairs loo and I was convinced that if you went at night you had to be back upstairs and under the covers before the sound of the flush stopped or the monster would get you.

Mostly though, the lighter for a gas cooker which created a small spark. Why we had one I don't know as we didn't have gas but my (much older) brothers used to chase me around the house with it. I spent hours hiding in the loo as it was the only room with a lock. I have no idea what I thought would happen if it got me.

[moolady1977]

I was absolutely terrified of escalators (childhood accident aged about 3) mirrors and windows when it's dark especially if it's a window in a door. Travelling over water for some reason it scares me stiff, was told I'd grow out of it but nope I'm still scared of them

[Coniferhedge]

For me it was Rupert Bear. He was far to ‘human’ looking. He looked like a person with a bear’s head. Absolutely terrifying.

[AnnabelleLecter]

We had a convent nearby and I thought the nuns were witches.
An old woman who lived alone in the massive house at the bottom of our road was really scary.
The dark, graveyards, horror films, Dr who, a program called Armchair thriller.
We had zero boundaries around TV programs and watched things way too young.

[BertieBotts]

My grandma had lights in her bedroom which had brackets shaped like gargoyles I suppose? I thought it looked like an evil face and it terrified me but she thought they were funny. I've no idea why I didn't tell anybody they frightened me, she probably would have been upset to know I was afraid.

Any unfamiliar toilet, I wonder why this is such a common one? I do remember the flush being scary, and the smell of public toilets is sometimes not very nice. I remember especially hating the metal ones you used to get and wetting myself to avoid using them at times :( I learned to wee in the woods after a while for long car journeys through rural Wales where the dreaded tin can toilets were the only option. I wouldn't even go into the building sometimes. This lasted until I was 16 and got drunk for the first time, instant cure.

I was also frightened of visible tree roots and wouldn't walk past them until far longer than my parents were willing to carry me I genuinely thought if I got too close they would be able to come out, wrap around my ankles and pull me down under the ground. The fact that roots sometimes warp tarmac as they grow seemed to be irrefutable proof and nobody could convince me otherwise.

Car washes - I worried that we might have left the window a bit open and the car would fill up with water. This is because I had seen it happen in a film, and the people tried to wind up the windows and the winder fell off. I don't think it was meant to be scary in the film but in my head they drowned, or something :o

House fires, I blame scary PIFs for this one.

[oldsilver]

Both still remain to this day:

Fire stations. Crossed one regularly and petrified the fire engines were/ are going to drive out and run me over without warning.

Images of empty clothes acting as though there are people wearing them. From a laundry boom mother had. Invisible man does not count as I know there is an invisible man inside. Clothes without invisible people inside just doing their own thang - no No NO

[oldsilver]

#laundry book

[GoldenBuns]

Sewing needles. I once had a bad dream where a needle with a curse on it was in our house. From then on, I had to check my bedroom for needles before I went to sleep. Reading that back - I realise how bonkers it was.

[GoldenBuns]

Also, crusifix. I come from a catholic family, and my grandma had one hanging on the wall in every bedroom in the house. When we came to stay, I would have to get my dad to remove the one in my room or I couldn't sleep. Wooden carving of a dead man nailed to a cross? No thanks.

[Iamagreyhoundhearmeroar]

A wooden carving? If you haven’t seen the Sacred Heart statue complete with exposed, light up heart; you haven’t lived, mate...

[GoldenBuns]

I'll pass, thanks all the same greyhound

[YeTalkShiteHen]

My ex’s Mum had a bottle of Holy Water in the shape of The Virgin Mary.

Not so bad?

You had to pull her fucking head off to get the water out!!! Scared the shite out of me and I was 17, it was so creepy.